The Dangers of Mixing Alcohol With Medications: A Nurse’s Perspective

By Olufemi Olatunji, RN-BC

As a nurse at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Wilmington, Delaware, I see my fair share of people who experience adverse effects from mixing alcohol with their medication. The plain fact is that many medications do not mix well with alcohol and it can be downright dangerous. There is no doubt that many Americans equate the legality of alcohol as a reason for underestimating its associated dangers. People think:  “If government must convince me that alcohol is bad for consumption, why is it legal?” Furthermore, some people drink because they believe alcohol has cardio-protective effects.

However, researchers have demonstrated that there is an “alarmingly dangerous interaction between alcohol and a surprisingly high number of commonly used medications.”[1]

Having examined earlier research conducted in the 1970s and early 2000, I agree with the position adopted by the US Department of Health and Human Services in collaboration with National Institutes of Health and National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism in 2007 that “Mixing alcohol and medicines puts anyone at risk for dangerous interactions from either potentiating effects or the inhibition of absorption so, avoidance of alcohol in every form from the nurses’ perspective remains an invaluable choice”.[2]

I see these reactions first hand in my practice, but one that stands out is that of a 58-year old African-American male patient who had a history of osteoarthritis and was prescribed ibuprofen. However, he never volunteered information about his alcohol use until he was found unconscious by his wife upon returning from some errands. When he was rushed to the hospital, baseline work-up confirmed severe anemia. In the course of working up and in the course of conducting differentials, he had suffered a massive gastro-intestinal bleed which could have been heightened by his combination of NSAID and alcohol consumption since there was no prior history of gastric or duodenal ulceration.

Patients should be sure to tell their health care provider if they drink alcohol and ask about interactions whenever they get a new medication. If you can’t remember to ask your health care provider, ask your pharmacist.

Olufemi Olatunji, RN-BC, is a registered nurse at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Wilmington, Delaware. He is also in the USAFR Nurse Corps.